300 not out

You need a break. Sadly, going abroad has

Letters

Stay of execution In his piece “From Hartlepool

Elderly care

Most of us will need it at some point— so why not share the costs? Andrew Dilnot makes the case

GB News

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

Nero

IN PRAISE OF LOST CAUSES

Do not enter

Forgive us our trespasses. Trespassers will be prosecuted.

Unhappy birthday

The nation’s bicentenary is marred by an election that has settled nothing and entrenched division, writes Valeria Costa-Kostritsky

Should we ban meat?

Peter Singer YES Cal Flyn NO YES

50 thinkers to rebuild the world

We stopped, they rethought. Meet the outstanding minds who are shaping the future

England: the nation that never was

Nervous breakdowns are only to be expected in a land that was always someone else’s country

A new England

SPEED DATA

The Prime Etonian

Portrait

Beyond black and white

The real picture of race in Britain comes in shades of grey. Until we can see them, we’ll keep talking past one another— and fail to make the progress we need

Money trouble

The global financial system is addicted to quantitative easing, and going cold turkey could be lethal. The only safe way to quit is to change the system itself

Driven together

Food delivery apps, and the wider gig economy, rely on labour that can be switched on and off like a tap. But the atomised couriers are now combining—and demanding a fairer deal

9/11—the moment that postponed everything

The attack locked in America’s hubristic sense of itself as “the indispensable nation.” After 20 years of foreign policy failures, the necessary rethink about its place in the world is finally underway

What is a woman?

The ferocity of the trans rights debate reflects a faith in the biological classes “male” and “female.” But when stripped of their cultural context, these physical categories are clouded in haze

The trials of freedom

Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga is today admired worldwide, but hounded at home—by the very regime whose postcolonial pathologies she helps us make sense of

The three worst words

Inside the Imperial War Museum’s battle to appeal to a divided nation

The logic of the screen

Pornography doesn’t persuade, it trains. Philosopher Amia Srinivasan says it’s time to reconnect desire with creativity

Meet the cousins

When first identified, Neanderthals were viewed as merely primitive versions of humans. But there’s plenty they can teach us about surviving climate change

An ant

They might be small, but they pose big questions about the individual and the collective psyche

The enlightened economist

A former Bank of England governor argues something has gone seriously wrong with capitalism—but refuses to name the guilty parties, finds Martin Sandbu

Pills, bills and heartache

A polemic on the evils of Big Pharma needs to apply more rigour to its own argument, writes Will Self

The optimistic Indian

One of the world’s most renowned economists has led an enviable life of companionable conversation and high ideals, finds Ferdinand Mount

Merciless on principle

A new biography of DH Lawrence fails to capture a restless and sometimes perverse author, writes Freya Johnston

Books in brief

Seven Ways to Change the World: A Global

Recommends

© SALLY JUBB/COURTESY OF APPLE/SONY PICTURES Classical Alexandra

Economics and investment

Paul Wallace The analyst Tax returns Finance ministers

Policy report: Transport & infrastructure

Climate change is bringing our ageing travel links into focus

Puzzles

The Generalist by Didymus

Some like it hot

British summertime is plagued with uncertainty, but we enjoy moaning about that almost as much as the sun itself

BRIEF ENCOUNTER

ILLUSTRATION BY NICK TAYLOR What is the first